Dont even bothered. Just play the game and be aware that more people love this game more than who hate it. Ps. Uneducated review and uninformed one are two different kind. So just take which one this limbo review was.
If that game is this much bad than why the heck is this 5th paid app on the US? Did you play it or not?Meaning on a mobile?
Reviewers have opinions. One review does not make the game any different. It's interesting to see why someone would not love limbo. There are plenty of five-star reviews out there. Personally I love the game and this review does not change that. I think people need to stop freaking out over reviews so much. I have been guilty of that in the past and I'm trying to get some more perspective about it.
I don't understand the conspiracy stuff people come up with. Like we are sitting in some mountain top hideout twirling our mustaches and coming up with devious schemes. It's really not that exciting. This was Joseph's opinion and review, that's all. Not some plot to get a bunch of angry comments. To me, there is something very wrong about if we had been like "Yo Joseph, you're giving an average score to a game a lot of people love. It's going to make a lot of people upset, so we're just going to scrap this and go find someone who likes the game more to review it." But that seems to be what people are asking for, and that just defeats the purpose of reviewing games at all. Like, have you ever met somebody that doesn't like pizza? And you are like "WHAT, HOW DO YOU NOT LIKE PIZZA EVERYBODY LOVES PIZZA!" but they've tried all kinds of different pizzas and it's just not for them. Well, a lot of people love Limbo, but Joseph found things about it that turned him off to it, and in the end he didn't feel it was as good as everyone else seems to think it is. He backed up his reasons well in the review, and that's really all there is to it. It's super OK to disagree with him (hopefully in a civil way) but at the end of the day, if you love Limbo, his opinion of it shouldn't change that fact. I'm sure this will just fall on deaf ears, but figured I'd give it a shot anyway.
Well the review is not gonna change anything for us but as you said yourself is someone doesn't like pizza he would never go to a pizza place because he knows he doesn't belong there.I started as a member of TA this year and IMO its the best gaming site.A lot of people look up to you for your reviews.I personally when bought the new iPhone I looked at all the 5 star games and know except for a few I own every one of them. But reading this review made a lot of people confused.If I did something wrong than I apologise but its like if we like pizza and someone who doesn't like it says something about we would be a little bit mad!
- How do you run in this game? Do I see a virtual joystick anywhere? You don't TAP TO RUN? Tell me how that is NOT accurate - You don't dodge enemies? Ok you go close to a spider and hug it, then use a machinegun to kill it right? Tell me one thing how it's inaccurate. Gotta love it when fanboys detect even the SLIGHTEST hint of negativity in someone's post then get all worked up like some sissy. Did I say this game sucks? I said I don't get why it has SO much hype, when it just uses the same "run left/right dodge enemies jump over obstacles" formula that about 1235723590 other games used, only it has very nice art style. Oh right I don't own the game. Yup somehow you hacked in my iPhone and came up with some conclusion I don't own a certain app. Hypocrite much? Coming up with conclusions BASED ON HOW YOU THINK IT IS?
It just seems that, as was mentioned, TA does not have any consistency with reviews. Here it seemed that Limbo was reviewed by a person who dislikes games like this. It's the equivalent to taking someone who doesn't like rap to review a rap album. No matter how good the subject may be, you aren't going to be impressed and wouldn't even remotely give the item being reviewed anything more than a middling score. That's why in a situation like this, having a 2nd opinion would be appreciated.
That's just not true though. Joseph is a lifelong gamer and likes all sorts of different games. He likes puzzle games. He likes platform games. He even likes puzzle-platform games. He just didn't like the implementation of the types of puzzles in Limbo and felt that it clashed with the mood and atmosphere it was trying to make. This was the entire crux of the review, not "I hate trial and error puzzles this game sucks because it has them."
You haven't played it, simple as that. Why does Way of the ninja get so much hype? It's just moving left and right. That is a terrifically pointless comment and would negate every other platformer out there, as they go left and right. Oh more importantly, you don't tap, you have a hidden virtual stick for movement, mimicking the 360 controls. And we get up in arms when someone speaks on something they have zero knowledge of.
I fully understand the reviewer has backed himself up and everyone has their opinion etc etc but its just not a nice thing to know that limbo sits below certain games that have been reviewed previously and scored higher. Now yes I know scores are subjective but I think I just want to see some internal consistency when it comes to stars/5. It's an important thing cos well... its the first and maybe only thing people look at (I have to say half the comments on the article only looked at the rate). Like when I come to toucharcade and read the front page articles I wanna know what the difference between a 3/5 game is and a 4.5/5 but recently I just can't trust in that. Hopefully you understand what I'm saying and think it's fair. What you're saying isnt falling on deaf ears either I see your argument to.
A huge negative point was that he disliked the trial and error puzzle system found here. But whatever. It's to be noted that he was in amongst a very small group of people who basically rated it as a C. Yes, technically 3 stars is a B- but everyone knows a B- is a nice way of saying a C, and based on TA reviews, anything under 3 has almost no redeeming factors, between 3 and 4 sit the middling games and 4+ are the games really worth playing. Oh wait. Thanks to metacritic the 3 stars equals a 60! That's awesome. The thought that this game is a C- is absolutely absurd and truly makes me sad that TA is on metacritic now. Now does a 60 make ANY sense to anyone?
Yes, but that rare person that doesn't like pizza isn't being asked by a highly prolific pizza rating company to rate pizzas...
I totally understand, and thanks for the comment. Regarding star consistency, it's not really that easy. A 5 star game in 2009 probably isn't a 5 star game now, mobile has changed an awful lot since then. We maintain that our star ratings are more of a general recommendation level rather than based on specific criteria, so in this case Joseph would be cautious to recommend it based on the things he mentions in his review. I wish we could take ratings out of the picture completely but it's sort of a necessary evil. Right, that's pretty much what I said? Maybe a bad example. It would be more like a person who loves mushroom pizza, and loves pepperoni pizza, but for whatever reason is put off by a mushroom and pepperoni pizza. Because he didn't care for this particular puzzle platformer does not mean he should be excluded from being able to review the genre. I tend to agree, though. If I hated football games I wouldn't want to be the one to review Madden. But that just isn't the case here.
I don't think there is a conspiracy at all. But there is no way you guys didn't anticipate this reaction. You knew it would happen and you decided to weather the storm, which is admirable. But, why? To gain credibility? I'd think so, but unfortunately that seems to have backfired. Maybe in the long run it will work out. Was it to foster discussion? Great! Yes, there is some flaming going on, but there is also serious discussion of the game being posted as well. I'd hope Joseph would join the discussion his review created, but to be honest I understand why he would choose not to. The review didn't upset me. My real problem with it is this: if his argument was actually clear and backed up sufficiently, then this many people would not be confused why he gave it a 3/5. That's tantamount to giving a 3/5 to Bastion, or IB2, or Sword & Sworcery. Yeah there are folks who would say those aren't the greatest games, but they are the minority for a reason. When most intelligent critics agree that a game is great, then the dissenting voice has a LOT of work to do. Bottom line, I think there is such an outcry because many people are not convinced by his review that a 3/5 is a fair assessment. I'm not saying that he shouldn't have written it, or that TA shouldn't have posted it. But if Joseph's goal was to start a conversation about the game, it's going on without him.
All this discussion shows that people are reading your review and are looking upto them.But if they are giving you a lot of praise they will criticise too. It is said that;"Majority is Authority." In the present case a lot of people are not satisfied by the way the reviewer explained the game to people.Its like he is saying that the game only has bad side and I will not recommend it. People never pass the 4 star ratings page.And thus a great game is buried in the grave!!!
That's the thing, though. His argument was clear, and I've paraphrased it many times now. And what you're insinuating right now is what i mean by conspiracy theories. There was no ulterior motives to posting this review. Not to generate comments. Not to start a discussion. Not to piss people off or be the "black sheep" going against the grain. None of that. It was simply the review Joseph wrote, and we posted it. The alternative was to not post it at all, thus silencing his voice; change it to be more positive and fit in more with the popular opinion, which also silences his voice; or find somebody else to review it that would give it a more positive rating which just seems gross to me. All I'm trying to say is that a lot of people are grasping at straws trying to come up with some weird reason why the review is what it is, without just accepting that maybe, possibly, perchance, somebody didn't like the game as much as they did.
If that's the case, there is no explaining why this review is the equivalent of a D/C- It doesn't make sense. As for the trial and error system, and what he does/doesn't like - the fact is that while a person is still a person when they are a reviewer, there has to be some ability to step outside of yourself to a degree. And again, it's telling when ONE review is so far off base from everyone else. I mentioned this in the comments, but I stress it here, that he is the equivalent of the negative review that kept Toy Story 3 from hitting 100% on RT. Because while anyone here may not see 3/5 being a "terrible" game, your scores add to the metacritic score and there it is a 60/100, making it a D/C- which is absolutely insane. While I disagree with the 1up review in many points, at least they were able to recognize and attribute the appropriate kudos to the game itself. But no matter, having a game that has garnered universal acclaim by almost every reviewer out there get the lowest score possible without making it a failing grade has done a service to NO ONE. It puts all the other reviews on the site on "blast" as the kids say, because if one review is so off base, how can we trust any review? And as for the reviewer, he's lost any shred of credibility... Seriously, 60/100?
